The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Leucothoe that is grown for use as an ornamental plant in the landscape and as a decorative indoor foliage plant. The new cultivar is known botanically as Leucothoe axillaris and will be referred to hereinafter by the cultivar name ‘CURLY RED’. In 1996, the inventor, a commercial grower of acid-loving plants including Gaultheria, Pieris and Leucothoe observed in his crop of Leucothoe axillaris variety ‘Zeblid’ (unpatented, also sold under the trade name Scarletta) a single plant which exhibited highly unusual curling and reddening of the foliage, particularly the new foliage growth. The inventor removed and isolated this naturally occurring whole plant mutation, not knowing whether the curling of the leaves was the result of a pathogenic problem or a spontaneous and permanent genetic mutation.
The inventor observed that as the single isolated plant continued to grow, its characteristics remained stable—that is, the foliage of the growing plant retained the characteristic curling and purple-red coloration as herein described. The inventor carried out the first asexual propagation of ‘Curly Red’ in the summer of 2001, in Boskoop, The Netherlands by taking stem cuttings from the current year's shoot growth. The resulting plants were compared with the original plant discovered. All plants resulting from the first and subsequent cycles of asexual propagation have remained stable and have been determined by the inventor to reproduce true to the ‘Curly Red’ type, with no “reversion” to the characteristic leaf type of all cultivars of the species LEUCOTHOE axillaris known to the inventor, including ‘Zeblid’, none of whose leaves curl at all. However, the new spring growth of the foliage of all cultivars of LEUCOTHOE axillaris does tend to emerge with a reddish-brown coloration.
When compared with the parental cultivar ‘Zeblid’, ‘CURLY RED’ is observed to have an identical form and characteristics, with the exception that the new spring growth of ‘CURLY RED’ emerges and remains noticeably curled, whereas the foliage of ‘Zeblid’ emerges and remains flattened as is typical of other known cultivars of the species LEUCOTHOE axillaris. The color of the curled leaves of ‘CURLY RED’ tends towards purple-red whereas the color of the emerging leaves of ‘Zeblid’ tends towards reddish-brown.
The inventor filed an application for European Community Plant Variety Rights for ‘CURLY RED’ on Nov. 5, 2001, application serial number 20011519, and subsequently granted on Sep. 23, 2002, grant number 10129. The inventor also filed in The Netherlands an application for Netherlands Plant Breeders Rights, application number PBR LCT002, which was published on Sep. 21, 2001.
‘CURLY RED’ was first shown to the public as specimen plants in the inventor's booth at the Plantarium Nursery Show in Boskoop, The Netherlands, in August 2003. The inventor retained control and possession of all of his plants of ‘CURLY RED’ until the first sale and delivery which took place in August 2004. ‘Curly Red’ shared with three other plant varieties, the award of “most striking plant novelty” at the Aalsmeer Flower Market in November 2004.